Tooth Day

Objective:
The students will add how many teeth they have as an entire class.

Materials

• Popcorn kernels, beans, or some other small item to be used as a representation for teeth.

• How Many Teeth Worksheet. (This worksheet has been formatted to be cut in half, to save on paper.)

Procedure

1. Hand out the worksheet and have the students make a good estimate guess for how many teeth they think are in their class as a whole.  The students should record this estimate on their paper.

2. Have all the students, using their tongues, count how many teeth are in their mouth.

3. They should then count out that number of kernels, beans (or whatever item is being used) on to their desks.

4. Ask the students the best way to now count all these "teeth".  Guide them to putting the items into piles of 10's.  They will have to work as a class to combine their leftover items with other students' items to continue making 10's.

5. Once these are all laid out, count up the number of teeth in the class.

6. Have the students figure out how far off their guess was.

Other Lesson Ideas

1. Make a whole class graph of the students' favorite toothpaste flavor or favorite tooth healthy snack.

2. Graph how many teeth the students' have lost.

3. Solve story problems containing the topic of teeth.  Use the Tooth Problems Worksheet.

4. Work with money under the topic of coins left by the tooth fairy.  For example, how much money will a child have if he loses 3 teeth and the tooth fairy leaves a dime for each tooth.

5. Read the book A Quarter From the Tooth Fairy (Hello Math Reader, Level 3.) by Caren Holtzman.  This is a great lesson on the different combinations of coins that equal 25 cents.